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Johnson Controls, Inc.

Type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: JCI S&P 500 Component
Industry	Auto and Truck parts
Founded	1885
Headquarters	Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Key people	Stephen A. Roell, CEO and Chairman
Products	automotive interiors, car seats, batteries, climate control, facility management
Revenue	US$ 41.955 billion (2012)
Net income	US$ 6.218 billion (2012)
Employees	170,000 (As on Nov 30, 2012)
Website	www.johnsoncontrols.com

Johnson Controls, Inc. is an American company globally offering products and services to optimize energy and operational efficiencies of buildings, automotive batteries, electronics and interior systems for automobiles.

It is a Fortune 500 Diversified, multi-industrial, multinational conglomerate with 170,000 employees in more than 1,300 locations across six continents. It is listed as 67th in the Fortune 500^[1] and 251st in Global 500.^[2]

Business Units [edit]

Johnson Controls operates three business units: Automotive Experience, Building Efficiency and Power Solutions.

History [edit]

In 1883, Warren S. Johnson, a professor at the State Normal School in Whitewater, Wisconsin, received a patent for the first electric room thermostat. His invention helped launch the building control industry and was the impetus for a new company.

Johnson and a group of Milwaukee investors incorporated the Johnson Electric Service Company in 1885 to manufacture, install and service automatic temperature regulation systems for buildings. The company was renamed Johnson Controls in 1974.

Between 1885 and 1911, Professor Johnson delved into many other areas, including electric storage batteries, steam and gas powered automobiles, huge pneumatic clock towers and wireless telegraph communication. But at his death in 1911, the company decided to focus solely on its temperature control business for nonresidential buildings.

Johnson Controls continued to develop new control technologies to help customers better manage their increasingly larger and more complex buildings. By the 1950s, for example, it was common for a large building to have hundreds of thermostats, valves, dampers and other temperature control devices installed throughout the facility, all of which had to be individually checked several times a day. To improve the efficiency of building operations staff, Johnson Controls introduced the Pneumatic Control Center, which allowed for monitoring and operating all the temperature control devices in a facility from a single point.

Johnson Controls has continued to develop new technologies. In 1972, it introduced the JC80, a minicomputer dedicated to building control. In the 1980s, Johnson Controls adopted digital control technology with its JC85, providing faster and more precise control of building systems. In the 1990s, the company pioneered open communication protocols to allow control devices from various manufacturers to share data directly. Its latest control system is the Metasys Facilities Management System.

Servicing management systems in commercial buildings is another business area for Johnson Controls. Beginning in the mid-1980s, the company expanded its services to cover mechanical and electrical equipment. The company created Integrated Facilities Management (IFM) to give customers a single source for operations and maintenance of all building systems and functions, and to ensure maximum building efficiency and reliability. Johnson Controls now provides full-time, on-site IFM staff for more than 600,000,000 square feet (56,000,000 m²) of building space around the world.

In 1978, Johnson Controls acquired Globe-Union, a Wisconsin-based manufacturer of automotive batteries for both the replacement and original equipment markets. Today, Johnson Controls is the largest producer of private-label lead-acid automotive batteries in North America, and is spreading its leadership to Asia and South America. Johnson Controls manufactures automotive batteries under the Optima, Varta, LTH and Heliar brands, as well as many private-labeled brands. The company also makes batteries for emergency power back-up and telecommunication applications.

Johnson Controls entered the automotive seating and plastics machinery industries in 1985 with the acquisition of Michigan-based Hoover Universal, Inc. Hoover started making components for automotive seats in the mid-1960s. At the time, the seating business primarily manufactured individual components, like frames, tracks or cushions, according to the automakers' specifications.

Today the company has become the world's largest manufacturer of complete seats, with manufacturing plants on five continents.

In 1982, Johnson Controls enacted a fetal protection policy. This policy denied women the right to work on the battery production line because of the potential harm to a fetus they may conceive. Women were only allowed to work on the production line if they could prove that "...their inability to bear children had been medically documented." In April 1984, the United Auto Workers sued Johnson Controls on behalf of three employees. These employees were Mary Craig, who had chosen to be sterilized to avoid losing her job, Elsie Nason, a 50-year-old divorcee, who had suffered a loss of compensation when she was transferred from a high paying job that exposed her to lead, and Donald Penney, who had been denied a request for a leave of absence for the purpose of lowering his blood lead levels because he intended to become a father. This case was argued before the Supreme Court on October 10, 1990 and was decided on March 20, 1991. Justice Blackmun wrote the opinion for the court and Justices Marshall, Stevens, O'Connor, and Souter joined. Justice White filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, in which Justices Rehnquist and Kennedy joined. Justice Scalia filed an opinion concurring in the judgment. The Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. This ruling was a landmark ruling because it affirmed that "...it is no more important for the courts than it is for individual employers to decide whether a woman's reproductive role is more important to herself and her family than her economic role."^[3]

Over the last decade, Johnson Controls has also developed comprehensive research, development, design, engineering and testing capabilities. This broad expertise is giving automakers and consumers seat systems with improved comfort, safety and technology.

Johnson Controls expanded its presence within cars and light trucks in the early 1990s by offering interior components such as headliners and door trim. It strengthened its position in interior systems through the 1996 acquisition of Prince Automotive.

Prince is known for its innovation, having introduced the first lighted vanity mirror in a car in 1972. With Prince, Johnson Controls can provide all aspects of a complete car interior, including overhead systems, floor consoles door systems, instrument panels and seat systems.

Global locations [edit]

Early years [edit]

• 1885 Johnson Electric Service Company founded
• 1887 Company pays first dividend
• 1902 Name changed to Johnson Service Co.
• 1903 Johnson humidostat specified by Willis Carrier for one of the world's first air conditioning installations—a printing plant in Pennsylvania
• 1910 Opened first European sales offices
• 1940 Johnson Service Co. securities first listed on what is today the NASDAQ exchange
• 1956 Introduced Pneumatic Control Center, enabling centralized monitoring of building conditions for the first time

1950s-1980s [edit]

• 1965 Johnson Service Co. securities listed on the New York Stock Exchange
• 1966 Sales exceed $100 million
• 1968 Acquired Penn Controls which produces refrigeration and gas heating controls
• 1968 Became a Fortune 500 company
• 1972 Introduced JC80, the first mini-computer built to control building systems
• 1974 Company renamed Johnson Controls, Inc.
• 1978 Acquired Globe-Union, Inc. and entered automotive battery business
• 1985 Acquired Hoover Universal, the source of its automotive seating and plastics machinery businesses
• 1989 Acquired Pan Am World Services and entered facilities management business; $659 million in sales

1990s [edit]

• 1990 Introduced Metasys Facilities Management System
• 1991 Supreme Court Decision Against Johnson Controls
• 1992 $5.2 billion in sales
• 1995 Opened 150th manufacturing plant
• 1996 Made seats for more than eight million new automobiles
• 1996 Selected for Industry Week Magazine's "100 Best Managed Companies in The World" list
• 1996 Acquired Prince Automotive and greatly expanded its automotive interior systems business
• 1996 Sales exceed $10 billion
• 1998 Largest seating supplier in South America
• 1998 Installed 10,000th Metasys facilities management system
• 1998 Acquired Becker Group, European automotive interior supplier
• 1998 Acquired Cardkey integrated security solutions
• 1999 Named GM "Corporation of the Year" out of 30,000 suppliers
• 1999 U.S. EPA Energy Star buildings "Ally of the Year"
• 1999 Winner of Mandela International Award for Good Diversity Practices

2000s [edit]

The previous logo.

• 2000 Acquired Ikeda Bussan, auto seat supplier (Japan)
• 2000 Introduced new products including Auto Vision, in-vehicle video system
• 2001 Acquisition of Sagem (France), maker of automotive interior electronics
• 2001 Acquisition of Hoppecke, German automotive battery manufacturer
• 2002 Acquired Varta automotive battery division (Germany)
• 2002 Sales exceed $20 billion
• 2003 Acquired Borg Instruments, Germany
• 2003 Exceeded $1 billion in purchases from diverse suppliers; named to Billion Dollar Roundtable
• 2004 Increased dividend for 30th consecutive year
• 2004 Received the World Environment Center's Gold Medal for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development
• 2004 Granted a contract for lithium-ion battery development for the United States Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC)
• 2005 Acquired Cal-Air, a California based mechanical contractor
• 2005 Acquired York International, a global supplier of heating, ventilating, air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment and services
• 2005 Acquired Delphi's global automotive battery business
• 2005 Named to Dow Jones Sustainability World Index
• 2005 Formed temporary joint venture with SAFT of France to accelerate lithium ion battery progress
• 2006 Hosted President George W. Bush for corporate tour and major energy speech at Building Efficiency headquarters in Milwaukee
• 2006 Sales exceed $30 billion
• 2007 New branding is introduced; "Ingenuity Welcome" becomes the company slogan
• 2007 Steve Roell is named CEO, the company's ninth in 122 years
• 2008 ASME designates the company's 1895 automatic temperature control system as a historical mechanical engineering landmark
• 2009 Was awarded $299.5 million in federal grants to manufacture batteries and other components for electric vehicles in Michigan
• 2009 The worlds highest tower (Burj Khalifa tower) finished by the Johnson Controls team
• 2010 The world's biggest hospital (Kalifa Hospital) started by Johnson Controls team

Acquisitions [edit]

• 1968 - Penn Controls (refrigeration and gas heating controls)
• 1978 - Globe Union Inc (automotive batteries)
• 1985 - Hoover Universal (automotive seating and plastics machinery)
• 1989 - Pan Am World Services (facilities management)
• 1996 - Prince Corporation (automotive interiors and electronics)
• 2000 - Gylling Optima Batteries AB of Sweden (spiral-wound battery technology)^[4]
• 2003 - Borg Instruments AG (automotive electronics)
• 2005 - USI Real Estate (office real estate)
• 2005 - York International (air conditioning, heating and refrigerating), $3.2 billion
• 2006 - Environmental Technologies (air conditioning, heating and refrigerating)
• 2007 - Skymark International (air conditioning, heating and refrigerating)
• 2008 - Plastech (injection-molded components and assemblies)
• 2008 - PWI Energy (energy management consulting and software services)
• 2008 - Gridlogix (building automation integration)
• 2010 - National Energy Services, Inc. (lighting services)
• 2011 - C. Rob. Hammerstein GmbH (CRH Group), (automotive seat adjuster manufacturer), To be completed in Feb 2011
• 2011 - Keiper automotive seating from Keiper Recaro group
• 2011 - EnergyConnect Inc. (Demand Response Aggregator)
• 2012 - Mitch Speechley (Tillsonburg Hub)

Joint ventures [edit]

Brookfield Johnson Controls [edit]

Brookfield Johnson Controls is a joint venture with Brookfield Properties to provide commercial property management services in Canada. It was established in 1992. In 2013, a similar joint venture was formed in Australia and New Zealand between Johnson Controls and Brookfield Asset Management.

MSKT [edit]

Major SKT - MSKT is a joint venture with Diniz Holding in Turkey building automotive seats for major OEMs.

Amara Raja Batteries [edit]

Amara Raja Batteries of India signed a joint venture with Johnson Controls in December 1997 to manufacture Amaron automotive batteries in India.^[5]

JCS and Electric Vehicles [edit]

Johnson Controls-Saft Advanced Power Solutions (JCS) was a joint venture between Johnson Controls and French battery company Saft Groupe S.A..^[6] It was officially launched in January 2006.^[7]

Varta established a JCS development centre at its German HQ, following the setting-up of Varta-SAFT joint venture.^[7]

Johnson Controls is exhibiting a plug-in hybrid concept called the re3, which embodies the technologies that the company can offer to automakers. Johnson Controls produced cells for lithium-ion hybrid vehicle batteries in France under the joint venture with Saft. Battery assemblies were developed and produced in Hannover(Germany) and Milwaukee(USA)^[8]

Despite some signs of promise, Johnson Controls was increasingly dissatisfied with the restrictions of the agreement and also sought a more important ally.^[9][10] In May 2011, the American company request the dissolution of Johnson Controls-Saft Advanced Power Solutions LLC to the Delaware Court of Chancery.^[9][10] The two companies agreed the separation and Johnson Controls paid Saft 145 million dollars for its shares in the joint venture as well as for the right to use certain technology developed by it. Johnson Controls retained the Michigan facility built by the partnership. The French joint facility was transferred to Saft.^[11][12][13]

On the other hand, Johnson Controls has taken an equity stake in Azure Dynamics.

Closings [edit]

It was confirmed on January 22, 2010, that the Johnson Controls plant in Lakeshore, Ontario would close in late March 2010 and the property sold.^[14] The plant supplies headliners for Chrysler minivans assembled at the Windsor Assembly Plant in nearby Windsor. The union is hopeful that the remaining workers will be absorbed by Chrysler. They would, theoretically, replace workers who have taken buyouts or left. The Johnson workers recently ratified a three-year contract in November that froze wages, but the company was not able to maintain its Chrysler assignments. It has not been announced where the headliners will be built after Johnson closes, but it is likely the work will move to a nearby Michigan plant that already builds headliners for European minivans.

The company provides facilities management services to Hewlett-Packard worldwide, including office services, HVAC, landscaping, security and general maintenance. The contract renewal bid was lost to a competitor, whose name has not been released. The contract expired December 21, 2010.

See also [edit]

• List of conglomerates

References [edit]

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Johnson Controls

• Official website
• Official International website
• Institute for Building Efficiency website
• York International website